Building characters: Street Roots vendors create cartoons

Street Roots vendors are working with Portland social-justice writer and cartoon artist Sarah Mirk, learning to draw and create their own cartoons.

Mirk is a contributing editor at The Nib, a graphic journalism website that publishes daily online comics as part of First Look Media, which features political cartoons, journalism, essays and memoirs about what is going down in the world.

For Mirk, teaching a cartooning class at the vendor office is part of a desire to connect more meaningfully with the homeless community.

“I wanted to meet people that work with Street Roots, not just in the context of giving somebody a dollar for a paper, but to find out what’s going on in their lives – what are you doing?” she said. “For me, teaching this class is a nice way to meet people and have a real connection that’s not based on ‘here’s a dollar.’”

Every Thursday morning through March 21, Mirk will meet with assembled vendors and take them through cartoon drawing basics. She has random models from the vendor office pose for the artists as they learn to do quick studies and capture the larger shapes and forms of a figure or an object. Mirk supplies pencils, pens, notebooks and a big box of pink erasers for the vendors to use.

“It’s been great. The hour goes by really fast,” Mirk said. “People seem up for drawing, taking risks. Drawing is actually really scary. It intimidates a lot of people and fills them with anxiety. So I appreciate that people are willing to show up and actually put pen to paper and come up with something, even if it is outside their comfort zone.”

“It is just fun to get together with the whole group and do something productive rather than be outside on the streets or sitting down doing nothing,” he said.

Vendor Jasmine Rosado is hoping to use the skills she is learning in the class to illustrate the poems she submits to the paper. “I like being part of things. It’s fun, and it goes with writing; it goes with poetry. I’d like to illustrate my poetry.”

Vendor Lori Lematta said she enjoys time spent doing art, whatever form it takes.

Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots